Taking Control: Clamping Down on BYOD

While BYOD is taking the business world by storm, some
businesses are already moving past it and questioning the value of the "your
own” in bring your own device. Security concerns have pushed ERP software
providers to clamp down on data security for mobile devices, unfortunately at
the expense of the employee, who loses some level of control over their device.

Why BYOD Can Be
Worrisome For a Business

The number of mobile devices that have access to a company’s
systems will passively increase the risk to data security with each additional
device that gets added. Businesses worry because not only can employees easily
access, import, and place confidential data in insecure locations, but the
devices from which they access data could also be insecure. If an employee can
just hook up their device to their business as is, the employer has no way of
knowing what kind of Trojans, viruses, or phishing the user might fall prey to.

Not being able to keep a tight lid on data is more than
enough reason to hold back on BYOD, and with some extremely high-profile
businesses being hacked and having their data compromised it’s becoming
increasingly relevant. The only way for a business to be able to secure their
data would be able to directly monitor and control devices being used by their
employees.

What’s Being Done
About It

ERP software is learning to adapt and do exactly that. Check
out this demo video that BMC made about their mobile management app. They’ve
built a program that allows IT departments to directly access and control
mobile devices by registering each device to their system. This is handy
because it allows them to purchase and download apps to those devices without
bringing them in for updates or trying to get everyone to do it themselves.

What’s considerably more important is that it allows IT to
strictly maintain data security on those devices. Apps and programs that aren’t
specifically approved simply can’t be loaded onto the device, meaning that the
key logging software embedded in that app that turns all of your icons into
pictures of kittens is no longer something to worry about.

Additionally ERP systems register each device individually,
and access to company data is only possible on specifically registered devices.
That means that you can’t log in to work systems on your home computer or on an
alternate device, which goes a long way toward making sure that data can’t be
copied or distributed. Lastly direct access to mobile devices allows ERP
systems to remotely wipe data and to invalidate registrations from a lost or
stolen device (or if someone suddenly quits).

What it Means for IT

Adding a large number of personal employee devices to the
load of technology that the IT department needs to manage for their business significantly
increases the demand for internal help desk services and has become a driving
factor in the development of another rising star in IT, IT process automation.

About The Author:

Demetrius Turner is the self-proclaimed king of
billiards in Nashville, TN. Through helping out with his brother’s small
business ventures, and being a techie, Demetrius has become an expert on
choosing VoIP services, internet storage options, and other cloud-based
applications. When he is not sinking shots and calling pockets, Demetrius can
usually be found reading various tech and business blogs at his laptop.